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How Bexar County voted

Interactive map: See how each precinct voted for Bexar County Sheriff.

She made history election night as the first woman elected sheriff of Bexar County. Yet Susan Pamerleau, a former U.S. Air Force major general and political first-timer, does not seem impressed by the distinction.

“My name's Susan. I'm a woman. That's it,” Pamerleau said two days after her big win over incumbent Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz, a career law officer who was seeking his second term.

Instead, she hoped people would focus on her qualifications rather than her gender.

“The fact that I'm a woman, that's a fact. That's a data point. That has nothing to do with how I approach this job,” she said. “This job isn't based on gender, race, ethnicity. Our job is to focus on the No. 1 mission and that's public safety.”

Pamerleau, 66, takes office Jan. 1, when she's handed the reins to a Sheriff's Office besieged by bad headlines, complaints of low morale and poor management, a staffing crisis at the jail, and a budget that has been straitjacketed by Commissioners Court.

“Her greatest challenge ... it's the cultural aspect that has been bred into that jail for years and years,” said Precinct 3 Commissioner Kevin Wolff, the lone Republican on Commissioners Court.

Wolff endorsed Pamerleau's opponent, Ralph Diaz, in the Republican primary, but supported her in the general election.

Wolff, who long has been one of the Sheriff Office's harshest critics, said he believes Pamerleau has the tools to get it done.

“She knows what she doesn't know and really seems willing to go out and figure those things out and put some good people around her,” he said.

Even the Deputy Sheriff's Association of Bexar County, which endorsed incumbent Democratic Ortiz, seems upbeat about the new sheriff's forthcoming arrival.

“I think she's going to be hands-on, a lot more hands-on,” said Joel Janssen, president of the deputy sheriff's union. “She's going to be, definitely a force to be reckoned with.”

This isn't Pamerleau's debut in a male-dominated industry. She boasts a 32-year career in the Air Force, where she was a pioneer, climbing the ranks to a respected major general. Even then, she encountered the perils of not being one of the boys.

She recalls a lieutenant colonel that walked into an office, where she was with several other people and put his arm over her shoulder. Quietly, without making a fuss, she lifted his arm and told him, “Don't let it happen again.”

He didn't talk to her for three months, she said.

But that was then and this is 2012, Pamerleau said, pointing out that 20 percent of the employees in the Sheriff's Office are women.

Janssen said he didn't think the new sheriff's outsider status would impact her ability to do the job.

“We're a professional organization. And we don't look at the gender nor do we look at any type of creed. We're going to work with any individual who comes in” he said.

Things weren't as easy for Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, who won election in 2004 — the first woman, Hispanic and openly gay person to win the position in the county's history.

“Of course it's challenging,” Valdez said. “It's difficult for some people to accept change, especially in the semi-military, male-dominated positions.”

She said that the first couple of years she was sheriff were “very difficult,” because she won the election by a small amount, which helped to fuel opposition to her in the department.

That opposition came in the form of some department employees slowing down work or not carrying out directives.

“The comment was ‘she won, but she's not going to be successful, and we're going to make sure'” of that, she said. Since then, Valdez has won re-election twice.

Pamerleau ran an aggressive campaign against Ortiz, out-fundraising and outspending him by more than 3-1 between July and September, helping to level the playing field in Democratic-leaning Bexar County.

That financial advantage allowed her campaign to run television ads that featured her looking directly into the camera and attacking the sheriff — for the deaths of three police dogs, for allegedly using county resources to bolster his campaign, for mismanaging the jail and for “good old boy crony politics.”

In addition to the ad blitz, she held news conferences to keep the pressure on him.

The aggressive campaign paid off with a victory, a political turnaround from her failed attempt to oust incumbent Pct. 4 Commissioner Tommy Adkisson in 2010.

On Election Day, Ortiz accused her of taking her campaign into the gutter, an assertion that she rejected.

“I would characterize that as I was reporting what (the San Antonio Express-News) and others in the media had reported. Those were facts, they were not allegations,” Pamerleau said. “I think it brought attention to the fact that these were leadership and management issues that needed to be addressed.”

The day after her election was filled with a rush of interviews with local media outlets.

“You know, you figure, ‘OK, big day, get to sleep in.' No, I had a radio interview at 7:30 yesterday morning,” Pamerleau said Thursday.

The next day seemed calmer: Her first meeting with the staff attorney assigned to help with her transition from candidate to officeholder.

Still, sitting in a high-backed chair in a large meeting room just off the lobby of her downtown condo building, she wasn't willing to add much detail to the positions she outlined during the campaign.

A common theme centered on greater use of technology at the jail and looking at processes to improve efficiency.

She wouldn't say who she would hire during the transition, who would be advising her, or who she was eyeing to hire after Jan. 1.

“I have a variety of people who I know will be useful in helping make those (decisions), advising me on different things,” she said. When asked repeatedly to name names, she declined.

Her language had the programmed and cautious feel of the campaign.

Asked what she thought was the oddest moment she experienced during the race, she paused and thought.

“I don't call this odd, but the best part of being on the campaign trail is all the great people that you meet,” she said. “I've just met so many great people in every part of this county.”

She describes her perspective on the staff as plainly as she does most of her opinions: “They put their lives on the line every single day to protect this community,” she said. “That's what I expect and that's what they're expected to do.”

nhicks@express-news.net

Twitter: @ndhapple

Correction: Sheriff-elect Susan Pamerleau retired from the Air Force as a major general. A story on Page B1 of some editions of Sunday’s paper and on mySA.com misstated her highest rank.